A vehicle with a turbocharger coupled to its engine may experience a condition known as “turbo lag” during engine operation. Since the turbocharger is powered by exhaust gas energy, a delay (e.g., turbo lag) occurs in response to a request for increased torque when the turbine and/or compressor are not at speeds at which they may supply sufficient boost pressure to increase the engine torque, such as when the engine is coming out of an idle condition.
The inventors herein have recognized the above problems and have devised various approaches to at least partially address them. Thus a method for generating an oxidant rich component of engine intake air and storing the oxidant rich component is disclosed. The method comprises, under selected operating conditions, generating an oxidant rich component from engine intake air, storing the oxidant rich component of the intake air, and, during subsequent increased torque request, injecting an amount of the stored oxidant rich component to the engine.
Specifically, in one example, the oxidant rich component of the engine intake is generated when boost is greater than a threshold amount. In this manner, oxidant rich air is generated during operation above a threshold boost pressure, for example, via a turbocharger that is coupled to the engine and the oxidant rich air is stored so that it can be used at a later time, such as during turbo lag.
It should be understood that the summary above is provided to introduce in simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described in the detailed description. It is not meant to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, the scope of which is defined uniquely by the claims that follow the detailed description. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages noted above or in any part of this disclosure.